Sweet Jealousy
by Lady Emily
Summary: Bailey and Woody's poorly-executed plan to make Cody jealous actually works! Sort of! Short little episode tag to "Kitchen Casanova."


A/N: I really have no explanation for this (slightly) altered ending to "Kitchen Casanova" except that I _really_ wanted to write a food fight...

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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"Woody? Could you help me mash my potato, you big, strong man?" Bailey Pickett almost gagged on her own sickeningly-sweet words. Her goofy friend Woody was hardly her ideal man... but as her ideal man was busy tasting other girls' gazpacho, she and Woody had resorted to extreme measures: make Cody jealous by flirting with each other.

"Why of course!" Woody said, unnaturally loudly. "It would be my pleasure to help such a lovely FEMALE person as yourself..."

She reached over to prevent Woody from trying to mash a raw potato. "You might want to try the cooked ones." she hinted none-too-gently.

"Ah, of course. Thank you Bailey." Woody mashed the potato easily. "How is that, milady?"

Bailey gave a high-pitched giggle, causing Cody to look over and frown. "That's perfect." she told Woody. "You're _really_ getting good at this cooking thing."

"I couldn't do it without my partner." Woody returned sweetly. Bailey noticed with satisfaction the troubled look in Cody's eyes as he glanced from her to Woody. Their plan was working!

Across the aisle, Bailey's obnoxious classmate Reina raised her hand. Reina -along with every other girl in the class- had developed a crush on Cody when he'd become their substitute cooking teacher, but she was the worst of the bunch, always flirting with him. It didn't help that she was gorgeous. "Mr. Martin? How can I tell when to stop whipping my meringue?"

Cody tore his eyes off Bailey and moved to Reina's side, placing his hand over hers on the whisk. He lifted it out of the bowl and the whitish meringue dripped slowly off of it. "You see how it's still liquidy? You want to keep whipping until its fluffy enough to hold the shape of a spike." He released her hand and turned to Reina's cooking partner. "That pudding looks delicious. This is going to be some lemon meringue pie." The girl blushed at his encouragement.

"Darn!" Reina sighed loudly, fluttering her eyelashes at an oblivious Cody. "My arm is getting tired!"

"It is tiring work." Cody agreed sympathetically. "Let me help you. See, you're whipping from your upper arm. It's much less work if you simply use your wrists."

Reina shot Bailey a triumphant look as Cody placed one hand on her upper arm and one on her wrist to demonstrate. Bailey saw red, gripping the handle of her potato masher so hard that her knuckles turned white.

"Uh, Bailey? Bailey!" Woody called, hesitantly at first, and then urgently. "Bailey! You're mashing my hand!"

Bailey looked down to see her masher pressing a grid shape into Woody's fingers. "Oh! Sorry Woody! Are you hurt?" Moving so that Cody had a clear view of what she was doing, she lifted Woody's hand and blew gently over his reddening fingers. "Let me get you some ice, you poor thing..."

Woody took back his hand and stuffed his bruised fingers into his mouth. "'Hat's al'ight, Bayee." he said around them. "Ih doesn' hur' anymow."

Bailey cringed. "Uh, okay... Just don't... touch the food again, okay?"

"Five minutes until the end of class." Cody announced. "Please clean up your stations, and don't forget to cover your food." He paused for a moment before adding, "Miss Pickett, please see me after class."

Bailey's eyes widened and she tried to get a read on her boyfriend's face, but he had already turned away. Did he want her to stay so he could confront her about Woody? What if he'd noticed their behavior and decided to break up with her? _Get a grip on yourself, Pickett,_ she told herself. _Cody's too professional to call you after class for something like that. Knowing him, he probably wants to discuss your grades,_ she thought with a snort._ I hope I don't get penalized for accidentally mashing Woody..._

The bell rang and the students cleared out, flipping their hair and waving goodbye to "Mr. Martin." "Good luck, Bailey." Woody whispered as he passed her. "I hear Mr. Martin can be a real tough grader."

Bailey rolled her eyes and approached the head table, standing directly opposite her boyfriend. "You wanted to see me, Mr. Martin?" she said dryly.

Cody folded his arms and sauntered around the table, coming face-to-face with her. "That's right, Miss Pickett." There was a teasing glint in his eye.

_Aww, he's flirting with me!_ Bailey realized. It was adorable, but, remembering how upset she was, she hardened her features. "Am I in trouble?" she asked bluntly.

He looked perplexed. "Uh, no?"

"Then what did you want to see me for?" she asked.

"I've barely seen you all week..." he replied, leaning towards her. He smiled that irresistible smile of his and she almost cracked. Almost. He was trying to sneak a few minutes alone with her under the pretense of keeping her after class! It was such an un-Cody thing to do, and yet it was completely sweet.

"Well, we've both been busy." she said shortly. "You especially. Connecting with the kids and all." She threw back at him the words he'd used yesterday when he'd gone to the movies with all the other girls in the class. Just thinking about it made her blood boil all over.

"Well, yeah, but I was hoping to spend some time today connecting with my girl." Cody said slowly, clearly confused by her hostile tone of voice. "Bailey, what's the matter with you?"

"Nothing's the matter with _me!_" Bailey snapped, ignoring the pleasant feeling she got when he called her _his girl_. "Now, _Mr. Martin_, I have a study date to help Woody with his homework. Was there anything else?"

"Now that you mention it..." Cody scratched his ear. "This is going to sound ridiculous, but... is something going on between you and..." he laughed it off nervously. "You know what, never mind."

"No, what?" Bailey pressed, folding her arms across her chest.

Cody frowned at her confrontational tone. "You've been acting awfully strange lately, and you've been hanging out with Woody a lot more than usual... That's all I'm saying."

"You're not _saying_ anything!" Bailey told him, stepping into his space. "If you have something to say to me, just say it!"

Cody cocked his head and took a step back, bumping into Reina's table. He swallowed nervously. "I don't know what's going on, or what you want me to say!" he protested. He was starting to get worked up. "You know what? Fine! I know you and Woody are hiding something from me! What's going on between you two?! There! I said it!" he slammed his hand down on the table and sent the large bowl of lemon pudding flying- right onto Bailey's shirt and face. His eyes widened in shock. "Oops... Bailey..."

Her mouth had dropped open in surprise and raw fury. "I can't. Believe. You did that."

Cody backed away as she advanced on him menacingly. "I didn't mean to! It was an accident!"

Reaching behind her, she ripped off the plastic covering on the bowl of meringue, scooped out a handful, and threw it in Cody's face. "Oops..."

"Ptht! Hey! That's Reina's grade!" Cody spluttered through the white foam.

"Uh!" Bailey spat indignantly. "You _would_ take her side!"

"Her side?" Cody repeated hysterically. "It's her meringue!"

"You like Reina's meringue so much? Then have some more!" Bailey yelled, dumping the entire contents of the bowl over his head. She looked around, searching for more ammunition, when her eyes settled on a tray of rising biscuits sitting on Addison's table.

"What are you _doing?!_" Cody yelled back, stumbling backward and wiping meringue out of his eyes. He grabbed a whisk and shook it in her direction. "Don't you dare!"

But she had already launched a raw biscuit at him. It hit his shoulder with a wet smack and stuck to his shirt. "What are _you_ doing?" she cried back. "Letting all those girls fawn all over you every day! Right in front of me! And you don't even tell them to stop!"

"What?!" Cody said disbelievingly, edging toward her. "I don't know what you're talking about!" As he got closer, he noticed with alarm that there were tears in her eyes. "Bailey, can we just talk about this?"

"No..." she sniffled, all the fight suddenly gone out of her. "I'm not going to just stand by and watch while you and Reina are all over each other." A tear dripped down her face and she wiped it with her hand, smearing flour on her cheek.

"All over each other!" Cody repeated, stunned. "Reina and I aren't-" She turned towards the door and he lunged forward to stop her, but he slipped on some meringue, knocking into Addison's table. A full sack of flour toppled off the table and exploded on the floor between Cody and Bailey, enveloping them both in a cloud of white.

Blinded and choking on the flour, Cody somehow found her hand and yanked a coughing Bailey out of the settling powder. They were both covered in flour from head to toe. "There is _nothing_ between me and Reina." Cody choked out solemnly. He cornered her against a table, putting one hand on either side of her body. "I can't believe you don't trust me not to cheat on you!"

Bailey leaned on him while she caught enough breath to speak. "I do trust you." she said. "It's _her_ I don't trust. And all the other girls. They've been hitting on you all week, and you didn't do a thing about it!"

"They've been _hitting_ on _me_? Are you sure?" Cody said, astonished. "All of them?!"

"Yes." Bailey said miserably. Another tear tracked through the flour coating her face and she tried unsuccessfully to wipe it with her dusty hands. "They were all over you, monopolizing your time, touching you, flirting with you! I can't believe you didn't notice."

Cody raised a hand to her face and wiped away the tear smudge. "You're the only girl I notice, Bails." he started gently. "What do I need Reina for? I've already got the smartest, prettiest, most perfect girl on the ship... And she's got a great pitching arm." he added dryly, pulling the remnants of Addison's biscuit dough off his shirt. "I didn't realize you were so upset, Bailey. You seriously had nothing to worry about. You should have just come to me with this."

The tears started again. "Oh, Cody!" she flung herself into his arms and the ensuing puff of flour made them both cough. "I'm so sorry! I let my jealousy get the best of me, and I tried to make you jealous by flirting with Woody, and I ruined Reina's pie, and I threw a biscuit at you! I'm the worst girlfriend ever!"

"You were flirting with Woody to make me jealous?" Cody chuckled.

Bailey nodded morosely. "I should have known it would never work."

"It did work." Cody admitted. "I thought I was losing my mind! I should have known though, when you said you were helping him with his homework. Woody never does homework!" he squeezed her waist gently. "Don't ever do that to me again."

Bailey smiled up at him, licking the flour off of her lips. "Now you see what I went through all week! Jealousy's not fun."

"Yeah," Cody conceded. "But at least I'm not the one who went ape-crazy and destroyed an entire classroom... this time." he teased, lowering his head to kiss her. She kissed him back happily, tangling her floury fingers into his hair.

The back door swung open and Zack entered. "Food figh-!" He stopped short upon seeing the state his brother and Bailey were in. "Whoa. Go Cody."

Bailey gasped, breaking away from Cody and spinning to face Zack. Cody was the first to grab a roll and peg it at his brother. The three teens laughed as Cody and Bailey's missiles drove Zack from the room.

"Now, Miss Pickett, where were we?" Cody murmured, affectionately dusting flour out of Bailey's hair.

"Well, Mr. Martin," Bailey hooked her fingers onto the buttons of his chef's uniform and pulled him closer. "We were..."

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A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review!


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